The Ant and the Elephant

Greg R taught at Sunday School this past Sunday, and he taught on discipleship, good works, and bearing fruit. He used an analogy that I've never heard before, but I thought it was a pretty good one. It had to do with an elephant. An ant and an elephant are crossing a bridge, and as the bridge is shaking, the ant is boasting to himself, "Look at me shaking this bridge." Ridiculous! As if the ant was the one who was making the bridge move. It's obvious that the elephant was the cause of the bridge shaking. If ant was crossing the bridge and the elephant wasn't with him, the bridge wouldn't even move at all.

This is how we are with God. We boast in our accomplishments and the things that we do, yet we forget the One who is the cause of it all. We do a good job at work, we get a good grade in class, we teach a lesson or preach a sermon and we get a good response - we feel pretty good about what we do and we boast in ourselves. But in reality, we're just like that ant crossing the bridge. We aren't making a dent. We have no effect. It's God who's doing all the work. It's God who's making the bridge move. We're just alongside for the ride. We reap the benefits of what God is doing. We can't accomplish anything without God.(John 15:4) We must abide in Him and trust in Him to do His work, and that He would accomplish His work through us.